Assyrian Map Tablet Replica (resin cast). About 4 inches round. A circular disc shaped tablet inscribed with cuneiform text on the front, segmented into 12 segments around the rim. The people of Mesopotamia used primarily a numbering system based on 60s rather than the decimal system based in 10s that we are used to today. It is this 6o based system that today gives us our 60 minutes to the hour that we use for time and the 360 degrees that we use in circular and compass measurements. This disc is segmented into such as system but also has a triangle insignia at the top that marks the north wind, as in ancient Mesopotamia they didn't use magnetic north as we do today, but instead documented according to the four winds. The reverse of the tablet has a map inscribed upon it marking out what is essentially the Assyrian Empire around the time of Ashurbanipal c640BC. It was Ashurbanipal that set up a massive library of clay tablets in Nineveh that survive to this day, thanks to a conflagration that burnt the library baking the tablets of clay thus ensuring their survival, unlike the papyrus/parchment libraries of the rest of the world that lost their collections when burnt. The map shows the Eastern borders of the empire, the Persian gulf with trading ship, the Tigris and Euphrates rivers with the Star of "Ashur" the sun god and the Ziggurat of Ashur nearby. The western borders of Egypt (with Memphis as capital) and the northwestern borders near Cilicia being marked. Cyrus, then part of the Assyrian Empire for a time is also marked as well as several cities along the Mediterranean coast.